As the Daily News reported, the four lawmakers were among 47 Senate Republicans who argued in an open letter to Iranian leaders that any agreement they may strike would not last beyond President Barack Obama’s administration.

“We will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement,” the letter stated.

The Daily Banter and other outlets noted that the letter could be considered a violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits U.S. Citizens from starting or engaging in “any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof” for the purpose of interfering with a foreign policy negotiation.

“This letter is neither advice, nor consent,” The Banter’s Tommy Christopher wrote. “It’s directly addressed to leaders of a foreign government presently involved in talks with the U.S., and it is designed to thwart those talks. Unless the senators were authorized by the president to address Iran’s leaders in this letter, a case can be made that 47 U.S. senators just violated a federal law that carries a prison term of up to three years.”

Remember when you weren’t allowed to put forth the mildest criticism of a Republican President when he was on foreign soil lest your patriotism be questioned? Oh, the good old days. Personally, I think it’s time to throw these traitors in jail, or, at the very least, kick them out of congress. They are unfit to serve. Republicans go on and on about the Constitution and American Exceptionalism and then prove they believe in neither. Their loyalty towards their country is conditional.

I’ll say that again, their loyalty towards their country is conditional. Let that sink in. They are only patriots when they get their way, and if they don’t they’ll burn the country down. These toddlers are in desperate need of a time out. Actually, toddlers behave better. Republicans are a complete disgrace.

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They are all Cliven Bundy and Oliver North now. This is part of a pattern of behavior. Conservatives don’t believe that they are bound by man made laws because they are acting in accordance to “God’s will”.

“I served in the United States Senate for thirty-six years. I believe deeply in its traditions, in its value as an institution, and in its indispensable constitutional role in the conduct of our foreign policy. The letter sent on March 9th by forty-seven Republican Senators to the Islamic Republic of Iran, expressly designed to undercut a sitting President in the midst of sensitive international negotiations, is beneath the dignity of an institution I revere.

This letter, in the guise of a constitutional lesson, ignores two centuries of precedent and threatens to undermine the ability of any future American President, whether Democrat or Republican, to negotiate with other nations on behalf of the United States. Honorable people can disagree over policy. But this is no way to make America safer or stronger.

Let’s not make too much of it. It’s another political publicity stunt. Iran’s leaders understand politics just fine. They know what’s up. I suggest we ignore it and everyone will forget about it in a few days. Is it in bad taste. Yes. Does it disregard precendent? Sure. Will it make any difference? No. In fact, when a certain ex-Senator and top diplomat is running for President next year pointing out stupid moves like this will only make her look better… This is fucking amateurish shit anyway.

Those 42 Senators can now go tell their fucking empty-headed constituents that they signed a letter and sent it directly to Iran! Who cares. It has zero impact on anything… like most purely political stunts.

There are times when I just want to give up on the idea of “United” States as what America is… Clearly, we are nowhere close to the “United States” of America.

Sometimes I wish America was divide into two different countries… Big, urban areas, west/east coast can be the Democratic States of America and then interior of the continent, large swaths of the Southwest/east can be the Republican States of America.

Can you imagine, the nation that is practically the cradle of humanity and can date back easily 7,000 years has to continually deal with a nation that’s been in existence for what amounts to a nights sleep, and was founded upon stealing land from an indigenous people that also had roots going back thousands of years.

@Ben: What makes you think Iran’s ruling regime is anything but rational and working to bolster Iran’s security? Where does this “they’re all crazy” meme come from? What has Iran ever done that’s “crazy” in any way other than “not doing what we want”?

Easy Geezy peazy. I didnt say anything of the sort.
But if you want to chat about Iran’s government and all the great choices they make, let’s see how they treat their women and non-heterosexuals.
my comments was merely to paint a picture of how stupid Tom cotton is.

This is a paper that endorsed Romney in 2012. Glad to see some folks still see treason for what it is. This IS a big deal…they’re trying to undo something delicate and complex. Imagine if Republicans had written Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis saying “Kennedy is weak, just ignore him.” Would have done us in.

OK, you said an agreement rested with the “level heads and pragmatism,” in which you indicated a lack of confidence. Why? Women’s rights aren’t an international-relations issue. Or were you under the impression Sen. Cotton’s stance is predicated on his strong belief in women’s rights?

Just by the by, the UK finally decriminalized homosexuality in 1982, and how often did we protest that?

This “Gang of 47″ didn’t write the letter – AIPAC did. The puppets merely signed and delivered it! US congressmen more loyal to the foreign TERRORIST APARTHEID State of Israel! Put them in cells next to their pal Israeli Spy Jonathan Pollard! Or give them blindfolds and put them in front of a firing squad!

How in the world is Ben getting called on the carpet for suggesting that Iran has some loons? If you look at that list, I suspect that every one of them believe that there are no level-headed Iranian leaders. That’s the play here. The letter is counting on lunatics in Iran’s government and clerics to use this to internally disrupt the negotiations.

Dorian, if I had any control over it, and I don’t, I would immediately order the indictments of the 47 signatories for the crime of Treason and order their immediate arrest and imprisonment upon trial. I would also seek the death penalty, and upon their conviction, attend their executions.

It has done nothing to harmful to it’s own agenda….. that agenda being running a repressive theocracy for as long as they can.

Unless you have some sort of reflex where you side with whoever the GOP is currently opposing, it’s shouldn’t be a debate.

you also assumed I was being 100% sarcastic with that first comment, which i was not… (being 100% sarcastic, that is…. maybe a little)
The mullahs dont want a war. the GOP and Bibi do. I say again… it will be up to level-headed pragmatic people within the Iranian government to keep this deal from falling apart. (said with only 10% sarcasm)

If we move this story out of fantasy land and into reality we’ll all noticed that this little political publicity prank will fizzle out by this weekend. These Senators just trolled Iran to get attention. I refuse to scream with outrage over something 12-year olds do on the playground.

In related news, too bad the Jewish Reagan can’t run for office in the US… because he very well may lose in Israel…

If you’re such a patriot, you should be a Republican. This country was founded on selfishness — a bunch of rich shits didn’t feel like paying for the cost of defending the land they stole. So fuck the Americans, too.

The point of bringing up the UK’s laws is that you weren’t questioning their rationality. My point is that even liberals have internalized this nonsense. No wonder they’re winning.

But by all means, don’t acknowledge your swallowing of the “crazy Iranians” meme, and we’ll all pretend it isn’t there.

oh… the point of bringing up the Stamp Act is that now I’m questioning YOUR rationality. I LITERALLY just said the whole deal releys on them not being the 10 year olds, (i think you’re giving the too much credit, DG) That the republicans are… and you call me a Republican. Stop defending a repressive theocracy (I dare you to argue that Iran isn’t an oppressive theocracy… i DARE YOU, SIR!!!!!!!) just so you can be the biggest kid on the jungle gym. It is, in fact, “beneath the dignity of an institution I revere.”

You’re still missing the point, so I’m going to stop trying to make it. I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m using your use of the meme to point out how thoroughly conservative propaganda has passed into the realityosphere.

Yes, Iran is a repressive theocracy. The US is a somewhat less repressive quasi-theocracy. So what?

“Either these senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander in chief in the midst of high stakes international diplomacy. Either answer does discredit to the letter’s signatories.”

It appears that for most of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, a war in Afghanistan and a war in Iraq were not enough. They now apparently want a war in Iran as well. President Obama is working with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China to try to negotiate a peaceful means to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. These negotiations must be allowed to continue and, hopefully, will succeed. It is an outrage that my Republican colleagues are trying to sabotage that effort.

A little more than just politically stupid. It happened because they don’t understand the difference between playing to their base and events in the real world, or that those two things might be connected in inconvenient ways.